Kolkata: Traffic snarls and waterlogging threw normal life out of gear in this West Bengal capital following heavy monsoon rains for over an hour on Monday.

Several schools declared a holiday as the skies opened up in the morning flooding large parts of the eastern metropolis under ankle- to knee-deep water.

The weatherman said the city was lashed by 72.4 mm of rain. "It is normal, monsoon showers," a duty officer at the Regional Meteorological Centre at Alipore told a news agency.

From posh south Kolkata areas like Southern Avenue, Fern Road, and Ballygunge to downmarket localities, including Tiljala and Topsia, it was a tale of woes for commuters, many of them school children and office-goers.

In north and northeastern parts of the city, Manicktala, Ultadanga, Belgachia were also inundated.

The waterlogging on the streets forced vehicles to move at snail`s pace triggering traffic jams.

There were serpentine queues of buses, mini-buses, taxis and private cars on the busy AJC Bose Road, Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and Shakespeare Sarani (erstwhile Theatre Road). "We are redirecting traffic to other roads," said an officer manning the city police control room at Lalbazar.

"I don`t know how I will go home," said Swaraj Chatterjee, a student of the South Point School, as he waded through more than ankle-deep water with his shoes in his hand.